December 2010 - KICTANet

Re: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles
by Betty Mwangi 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

Thanks Washington On your iSsue with Bonga I believe a member of my team is in touch to investigate the problem you are experiencing so that we can sort this out Rgds BlackBerry® powered by Safaricom ________________________________ From: Odhiambo Washington To: Betty Mwangi Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke Sent: Fri Dec 17 09:04:18 2010 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Betty Mwangi <bmwangi1(a)safaricom.co.ke> wrote: Robert Thanks for your comments and the inconvenience is highly regretted. I assure you you are not peculiar in any way and as a matter of fact Safaricom will be availing an on line top up service for data early in the New Year that Will assist with situations similar to yours. We assure you of our committment to continue to ensure that we meet customers needs. Hi Betty, Such a solution will be very welcome, especially in the face of the many "sonkos" brandishing iPads. At the moment the process of buying a bundle for an iPad user is hell, thanks to the microsim. That you have to face a process of powering down the iPad, removing the microsim, place on a holder, get some phone to be powered down to take the "sim", load credit, buy data via sms, wait for confirmation, then follow the reverse of this process.... You just see the hassle that product will save many from! PS: In the meantime, would you be kind enough to mobilize "the team" to revive Bonga points query/redemption system? It's been down for a while. -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Damn!! ##################################################################################### NOTE: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom�s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. #####################################################################################

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AU Joins the .africa & .afrique Fray
by Muchiri Nyaggah 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

"The African Union (AU) has expressed interest in playing a key role in selecting the operator for the .africa and .afrique generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)." See the rest of the story here http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=EFAAA1C0-1A64-6A71-CE3979187410031B Kind regards, *Muchiri* Nyaggah Director @muchiri +254 722 506400 Semacraft.com

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Re: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles
by Betty Mwangi 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

Robert Thanks for your comments and the inconvenience is highly regretted. I assure you you are not peculiar in any way and as a matter of fact Safaricom will be availing an on line top up service for data early in the New Year that Will assist with situations similar to yours. We assure you of our committment to continue to ensure that we meet customers needs. Best rgds Betty Chief officer - New Products Safaricom BlackBerry® powered by Safaricom ________________________________ From: kictanet-bounces+bmwangi1=safaricom.co.ke(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke To: Betty Mwangi Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Fri Dec 17 08:17:33 2010 Subject: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles Hi, I am like many of you a peculiar Kenyan in that I can quickly find 10 new ways to use a product that the provider/manufacture could never have though about. When Safaricom introduced the monthly data bundles I quickly took advantage of the service to roll out remote data capture terminals as I had a new that the 999/- unlimited monthly bundle would meet my requirements without any problems and at a predictable cost. So after rolling out the device somewhere in the middle of nowhere, its a security device so I will not give you the GPS coordinates, where no man need go again. I loaded the initial 999/- and off went the device, little did I know that the place that no man needed to go would need to be visited at least once a month. Why, because safaricom's unlimited monthly bundle cannot be purchased remotely, one needs to physically get to the sim card, my device is credit card sized and runs some proprietary software. I appreciate the fact that I am doing with the service what Safaricom did not think could or even would be done. I have talked to the customer service persons, they are now more script driven than before, and all I got was ". . the 450 service cannot be activated from another line, please put the sim card in a phone and send a sms message to 450 with the bundle size, thank you for calling Safaricom and have a good day". This what I had asked for in a call centre operator but suddenly my needs have now surpassed the standard script can Safaricom please implement an escalation procedure in the script so that when peculiar Kenyans like myself call with peculiar requirements we can get assistance. For now there goes my weekend as I need to travel to the top of a hill somewhere in Kenya, report to the local police station to avoid being shot down, climb up a 12 meter mast, remove a sim card, insert it into my phone, send an sms to 450, remove the sim card, place it back into the device, climb down the mast then drive back to Nairobi. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ##################################################################################### NOTE: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom�s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. #####################################################################################

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Re: [kictanet] [AfrICANN-discuss] NRO-NC appointment at AfriNIC
by Brian Munyao Longwe 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

Congratulations Alan! You are the right man for the job! On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 6:19 PM, Adiel A. Akplogan <adiel(a)afrinic.net>wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > We are please to announce that the AfriNIC Board has appointed Alan P. > Barrett as AfriNIC's region representative to the NRO Number Council > for one year (01-Jnauary-2011 to 31-December-2011). > > We would like to congratulate Alan for his appointment and wish him > success. > > Sincerely. > > ______________________________________________________________________ > Adiel A. Akplogan Tel. +230 403 51 00 > Chief Executive Officer, AfriNIC Fax: +230 466 67 58 > adiel(a)afrinic.net - www.afrinic.net sip: adiel(a)voip.afrinic.net > > _______________________________________________ > AfrICANN mailing list > AfrICANN(a)afrinic.net > https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann > -- Brian Munyao Longwe e-mail: blongwe(a)gmail.com cell: + 254 722 518 744 blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com

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Reloaded: Yawe for post master general
by Francis Hook 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Maybe Robert Yawe will realise his dream seeing how the current PMG made it onto "the list" -- Francis Hook +254 733 504561

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Fwd: Media Advisory: Silicon Valley entrepreneur visit Kenya
by Paul Kukubo ICT Board 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Of interest. Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: > From: Kenya ICT Board <kkobia(a)ict.go.ke> > Date: 14 December 2010 10:10:06 GMT+03:00 > To: pkukubo(a)ict.go.ke > Subject: Media Advisory: Silicon Valley entrepreneur visit Kenya > Reply-To: kkobia(a)ict.go.ke > > > Paul > > The Kenya ICT Board will host a group of entrepreneur including Russel Simmons (co-founder of paypal) and Jawed Karim (co-founder of youtube) at an event at the iHub on Tuesday Decemeber 14 at 3:00pm. > > You are invited to cover the event, which will also feature some Kenya's top tech entrepreneur . > Tandaa Tech Talk > Featuring members of i/o ventures including co-founder of paypal, co-founder of youtube and co-founder of yelp.com > Venue > iHub, Bishop Magua Center, 4th Floor, Ngong Road, Opposite Uchumi Hyper > Date > December 14, 2010 > Time > 15:00 - 18:00 > Host > Kenya ICT Board > > Members of the media interested in booking interviews with special guests should contact Kaburo Kobia kkobia(a)ict.go.ke or call 0729466260 > > For more information: > Background > > Profiles for i/o ventures team > > About Kenya ICT Board > > Contact info > > Background > > i/o ventures is an early stage start up program that focuses heavily on mentorship. Their network of entrepreneurs have started multi-billion dollar internet companies including paypal, youtube, myspace, hi5 and yelp, many of which have over 100 million users visiting their websites monthly. > The mentors have visited a number of countries including Singapore, Brazil, Russia, and mostly recently Tanzania. During their visits the mentors travel participate in a variety of events which usually include speaking at top universities, meeting with upcoming entrepreneurs, top business leaders and a meeting or dinner with top government officials including the President or Prime Minister. The end goal is to spread ICT entrepreneurship, build a bridge into Silicon Valley and encourage the growth of the local "tech ecosystem". > > i/o ventures are making their first trip to Kenya from December 13 - 14. During their Kenya trip they would like to focus on mentorship based on their extensive experience in incubating start-up entrepreneurs. Their most recent graduating class included six companies in the internet space, they were exposed to 120 Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors and all got funded. Half are already profitable, one has been acquired. > Profiles > Russel Simmons: early employee/lead technical architect at paypal, former CTO and co-founder of Yelp.com > Jawed Karim: cofounder of Youtube, early employee at Paypal and angel investor > Paul Bragel: partner at i/o ventures, co-founder of Leforum (online forums), co-founder/CEO of Meetro (location based social networking) and former CEO of Paragon Five (game development > Mbwana Alliy: associate at i/o ventures, co-founder of Yellow Masai, Board Member at Envaya > About Kenya ICT Board > > The Kenya ICT Board was established by HE President Mwai Kibaki, as a state corporation under the State Corporations Act Cap. 446 on 19th February 2007. > > The Kenya ICT Board's mission is to champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment. > > Its vision is that Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub by 2030. > > The Kenya ICT Board mandate is to: > Market: Positioning and promoting Kenya as an ICT destination (locally and internationally), especially promoting Business process Outsourcing (BPO) and Offshoring. > Advise: Advise the government on all relevant matters pertaining to the development and promotion of ICT industries in the country > Build Capacity: Providing government and other stakeholders with skills, capacity and funding for anchor implementation of ICT projects for development. > Manage Projects: Coordinating, directing and implementing anchor ICT projects in development. > > Contact > For more information or to book interviews please contact: > Kaburo Kobia > 0729466260 > > > Sincerely, > > > Kaburo Kobia > Project Manager, Local Digital Content > Kenya ICT Board > > This email was sent to pkukubo(a)ict.go.ke by kkobia(a)ict.go.ke. > Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. > Email Marketing by > > Kenya ICT Board | Telposta Towers, 12th Floor | Kenyatta Ave | P.o. box 27150-00100 | Nairobi | Kenya >

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Cartagena Statement of the African ICANN community about the Support for new gTLD applicants
by Alice Munyua 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Dear all, As you are aware ICANN is meant to introduce new gTLDs, however, during the just ended meeting in Cartegna, various stakeholders continued to raise a number of controversial aspects of the new gTLDs programme, which include but not limited to geographic names, root zone, scaling, economic analysis, malicious conduct, etc. The ICANN board resolved to provide more time to stakeholders to discuss and work through the remaining issues. Africa ICANN representatives remain very concerned about thehigh costs for applications/process, which is likely to exclude those without the level of financial resources required, e.g cultural and other non-commercial groups, among others from benefiting from the opportunities the new gTLDs will offer. Please see Draft Applicant Guide (DAG) book: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-rfp-clean-12nov10-en.pdfand send in comments. See Africa ICANN statement below. best Alice ----------------------------------------------------------- Following ICANN Board's resolution 20 in Nairobi meeting whereby "The Board requests stakeholders to work through their SOs and ACs, and form a Working Group to develop a sustainable approach to providing support to applicants requiring assistance in applying and operating new gTLDs ." . We, members of the African Community, consisting of AFRALO and AfrICANN, at the ICANN meeting in Brussels, jointly welcomed the Board resolution 20 and expressed our gratitude to the Board members for their consideration of the community concerns about the cost of applying for new gTLDs that might hinder applicants, especially those from developing countries. . We adopted a statement in which we expressed the expectations of the African Community from the so-called resolution 20, which statement was sent to the ICANN Board and the JAS Working Group which was formed for the purpose. In its retreat in Trondheim (Norway), the ICANN Board decided late September 2010 that Support to applicants will generally include outreach and education to encourage participation across all regions, but any direct financial support for applicant fees must come from sources outside of ICANN. It also decided that the fee levels currently in the Applicant Guidebook will be maintained for all applicants. . While we welcome the decision of providing outreach and education support to applicants who require assistance, we, members of the African Community, in Cartagena express our deep concern regarding the non- consideration of the fee reduction that we, and the JAS Working Group, proposed. . We consider that without application cost reduction, the developing countries, and especially those of the African region, as well as the disadvantaged communities willing to apply for a cultural, linguistic or ethnic gTLD will be excluded from this new gTLD program, that the resolution 20 wanted it to be inclusive. . We strongly believe that assistance should be provided to the needy applicants at the upcoming first round of application, and not at some possible future round, because: o Without assistance for applicants needing support, all of the most obvious names, including IDNs, will be taken by rich investors, leaving little opportunity to local community institutions and developing country entrepreneurs o Even if it is intended to open a second round, its date is at best uncertain regarding the experience of the 2001's round. . We strongly support the milestone report of the JAS Working Group, and look forward to the consideration of its recommendations by the ICANN Board. . We are supportive of all on-going work as per the recommendations of the JAS WG Charter. --

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Africa @ICANN: Cartagena Statement of the African ICANN community about the support for African participation
by Alice Munyua 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Dear Listers, Here's a statement from the Africa ICANN community during the just ended ICANN meeting in Cartegena: ----------------------------------------------------- The African community through AFRALO and AFRICANN is concerned about its lack of effective participation in the main activities of ICANN as internet users. The commitment and the participation of the different parts of the community require knowledge of the issues being discussed. In order to improve the quality of the participation, it is important to explain the meaning and the limits of ICANN’s mandate, the stakes and the impact sought for. A major awareness campaign at local and regional levels would be a first step towards a due capacity building program for a meaningful participation Participation can be done by many and different means. They include email discussion lists, teleconferences, fora, videoconferences, electronic votes, wikis, blogs as well as face‐to‐face meetings in respective languages For online participation, it is important to have a calendar that establishes the timing for community input. This calendar would allow more effective planning and optimal engagement of the community. Even as we celebrate the diverse methods and tools available, we recognize that many challenges remain to be overcome for effective participation of users at the edge. Some are entirely technical and will improve with time. Others, however, will require means and commitment to improvement in interactions from all stakeholders, users included. Volunteered work is not very sustainable in Africa due to the necessity to make a living and institutions are unwilling to continue to cover the cost of their staff on volunteer assignments. The challenge is to have many motivated African experts to participate in a regular and effective way. Therefore, we, AFRALO and AFRICANN members, recommend to call for support from development agencies, private sector and other potential actors to facilitate African participation to ICANN policy development processes. We acknowledge that the ICANN fellowship program is supporting the participation from developing economies. Henceforth we urge the ICANN Board consider the following: • The number of fellowships from African Regions should be increased   Recognizing that the present form of capacity building has not produced the desired outcome, a more proactive approach needs to be adopted:   • Policy advocates and students’ needs to be identified and recruited in a manner that is sustainable. • Advocates should be situated and employed on a part-time basis in existing policy institutions or think tanks that are already engaged in local and global internet policy. • In their capacity as staff, they will be responsible for policy making locally, nationally and regionally and will engage internationally in policy making fora such as the IGF, ICANN, ISOC and other global policy arena. • This function requires support from development agencies who are concerned about the dearth of African policy makers locally and in the international arena. Support for this sort of initiative must be protracted and sustained over a period of time rather than the current approach of facilitating developing country participation at conferences and international policy for a travel support. • Policy advocates must act as bridges between their countries/regions and the international policy forum. Their host institutions must act as bridging institutions in the same capacity as the advocates. • This dual policy vehicle of person and institution will ensure sustained policy development if it is developed and deployed in the different regions in the continent. For institutions such as ICANN, they provide value and leverage where engagement, direct and immediate responses are required for certain policy situations. • If this model gathers the support of ICANN, it can seek the partnership and support from other institutions such as APC, KICTANet, IISD or AfriNIC to host policy advocates for a period using an internship framework. Policy advocates can also spend certain periods at places like ICANN or the IGF secretariat. --

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Honouring the man who linked Kenya to world (was Update on Arrangements for Kisumu Reunion – December 21-23rd, 2010)
by Shem Ochuodho 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Madada Philo na Betty, Ahsanteni for the pongezi's. It was re-freshening to know the CTO (Commonwealth Telecom Organization www.cto.int) domiciled in London, with current CEO being Ghana's former Minister for Communication (Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah) could remember some of Africa's Unsung Heroes. I am working on a book with that name to catalogue the evolution of Internet in Africa - perhaps we should look for royalties from FaceBook, Google, mPesa, YouTube, SEACOM, etc! But the efforts could not have borne fruit without the inputs of several other people, including the techies who alongside Randy Bush burnt mid-night oil (Dr Martin Koyabe - now with British Telecoms, Paul Olendo now @UN, Alfred Orimbo, etc) - for several nights - to get it all work on Kenya's/indeed Africa's then real terrible phone lines. In the same vein, without Steve Goldstein of the US National Science Foundation (who provided the boxes and technology) and Peter Sutherland of UK's Overseas Development Agency (ODA now DfID) who took up the initial leased line phone bills - used to cost US$ 16,000 (yes, 16k) per month for just a mere 64KBps pipe - it wouldn't have happened. When in 2000 CSK (Computer Society of Kenya) felt I deserved 'Father of Internet in Kenya' title, I dedicated the award to three people: Amb. Dr Benjamin Kipkorir (then Kenya's Ambassador in Washington), Micah Cheserem (then Governor, Central Bank), Brig. (Rtd) Wilson Boinnett (then DG, NSIS aka Special Branch). Without these guys' intervention, the KANU regime of the time wouldn't have allowed Internet to happen. Not that they didn't try to block it - the then Head of Public Service wrote a letter (I have a souvenir copy) to all PS's, Heads of Military, Special Branch, etc warning them not to connect to ARCC/Internet/UNEP without direct approval from his office. That partly explains why these three Kenyan Wazalendo's perhaps deserve these awards more than I. Last but not least, Jeddy and the kids who allowed me to use one of the family bedrooms for initial tests when sections of the University felt by staying late in the labs night, we had 'lots of idle time and needed to be given more teaching load' had denied us space to do the experiments. But all the Glory must always go to God the Almighty, Allah - the One and Only! For those who missed the story (courtesy Visioner Augustine Oduor), you can access it on: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/news/InsidePage.php?id=2000024440&cid=159&st…. Best rgrds, Shem 2010 CTO/GoSS African Internaut (Internet Pioneer) Award Recipient ________________________________ From: Philo Ikonya <philonikonya(a)yahoo.com> To: NVK-Mageuzi(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Sat, 11 December, 2010 18:51:39 Subject: Re: [NVK-Mageuzi] Update on Arrangements for Kisumu Reunion – December 21-23rd, 2010 Adhiambo, thanks very much for letting me know.. I did not know.. Congrats Shem. You did not say it even as I was telling you of my little works?\ Philo Aung San Suu Kyi cannot be silenced because she speaks the truth and because her words reflect basic Burmese and universal concepts - Vaclav Havel --- On Fri, 12/10/10, Betty Otieno <betty.otieno(a)gmail.com> wrote: >From: Betty Otieno <betty.otieno(a)gmail.com> >Subject: Re: [NVK-Mageuzi] Update on Arrangements for Kisumu Reunion – December >21-23rd, 2010 >To: NVK-Mageuzi(a)yahoogroups.com >Date: Friday, December 10, 2010, 11:01 PM > > > >Congratulations Shem on the honor you received the other day, pioneer internet >related Kenya. > >Adhiambo > >

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Tanadaa Tech Talk with I/O venture
by Twahir Mohamed 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Dear Listers, Below is alive stream on the above eventes I/O ventures are techprenures based at the silcon valley,giving enteprenures and techie's advice .The event is at the ihub . http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tandaa-tech-talk -- Twahir

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